The face of beekeeping has
changed dramatically in the last decade. We have experienced a
resurgence in direct-marketing and value-added beekeeping
operations, with many of these being run on a smaller scale. We
have also seen dramatic growth in urban beekeeping, micro-scale
beekeeping and hobby beekeeping, and farmers seeking to
diversify their operations by adding bee hives to their farms.

At the same time, Alberta’s
largest operators have grown their hive numbers and many of the
older beekeepers, who ran several hundred hives for decades,
have been retiring, with no one of the same scale replacing
them.

UBA is being created to
support all the beekeepers in Alberta: the ones bringing their
new marketing ideas and management perspectives with them, and
our established beekeepers whose skills and experience with
cold-climate beekeeping are rivalled by few in the world.

We recognize the
contributions that all beekeepers make to the industry and
community, regardless of hive numbers. As a provincial
organization, our focus is on supporting beekeepers through
education, building businesses and marketing our products with
an eye to the future.

Activities and services we
re planning for beekeeping operations of all sizes are:

Encouraging and
supporting beekeeping and beekeepers throughout Alberta
while recognizing the diverse geographic regions, beekeeping
goals, beekeeper skills and experiences present in the
province;

Providing broad
learning opportunities for beekeepers, from teaching
beginners basic beekeeping skills to providing guidance on
scaling operations from a few dozen to a few hundred or
thousand hives; and,

Serving as a link
between the beekeepers of Alberta and the government on
matters pertinent to the beekeeping industry.

In summary, we support
diversity in the beekeeping industry. We support bee breeders,
bee sellers, honey producers, pollinators, value-added
operations, packers and processors, and passionate backyard
beekeepers who love talking about bees to anyone and everyone.
We invite everyone with an interest or stake in the beekeeping
world to become a member of this exciting new organization.